Mclaren finally find what's wrong with their car well so they say

McLaren believes it has identified the major areas in which it needs to improve ahead of this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

While the team acknowledges there is no 'magic bullet' which will suddenly restore it to the front of the Formula 1 grid, it believes it has now pinpointed what has gone wrong with its 2013 car.

As a consequence it will bring a raft of upgrades to China in a bid to start this year's campaign afresh at Shanghai.

"I believe we do know where the problems are on the car," managing director Jonathan Neale said during a Vodafone phone-in.

"We managed to improve the car between Australia and Malaysia, and we were closer on the pace there.

"Taking the learning from that weekend, we're taking a number of upgrades to China. Some are routine, some are a response to the moment.

"We need to run the package we have in China in order to be absolutely sure [about progress], so Friday is a very key element.

"I certainly believe we are on the right track now; we have an idea where the problems are.

"After the Chinese Grand Prix I think we will have more [answers]."

Neale insisted McLaren can still feature in the 2013 F1 title fight, in part because of its conviction that the MP4-28 is a potential race-winner.

"We believe that we have underlying a very good package. Clearly it is not a performance we expected, but it's a long season as everyone knows," he said.

"We've seen in previous years the car that wasn't on pole [at the start] can fight it out right to the end, and everything we are doing here is designed first of all to make us back into winning form.

"If we can get on that quickly - and there is no reason why we can't - we can fight for the championship.

"We are not under any illusions about the amount of work we need to do to get the pace back into the car.

"There is no one thing, no magic bullet; there are a number of things that will restore the performance of the car.

"Obviously it's not an ideal start, we can't shy away from that, but I believe in this team and this car."

Source: Autosport

Wouldn't surprise me if they've found and to an extent fixed what was fundamentally wrong with the car. It's the same old story with McLaren, better late than never for the team but in my opinion the damage will probably have already been done, even this early in the season.

While I've no doubt they can and will improve the car, I think they're going to struggle to have much impact on the title race, other than picking up wins or podiums when the leaders have an off-day.

Red Bull have hit the ground running and are already looking ominously dominant. Ferrari look to be not too far behind. Renault and Mercedes look like they could be contenders with a bit of work.

In short, McLaren are going to have a lot more competition than usual and no longer have Hamilton to make up for any shortcomings in the car. I believe Jenson will do a decent job and may pick up some podiums, maybe a win or two, but his performances are too dependent on having the car spot-on for his driving style. Perez has yet to show he can replicate the performances he put in at Sauber.

On top of that they still seem to be prone to making bad strategy calls, both in qualifying and during races. This is something else they need to sort out, to get the maximum benefit of any performance gains.

If they can show a significant improvement in China and show consistently good performances over the next few races, they maybe they have a shot at the title. At the moment its a big IF.